Gay artists: Pierre et Gilles

Pierre et Gilles: Saint Sebastian 2009

Pierre et Gilles, Pierre Commoy and Gilles Blanchard, are gay French artistic and romantic partners. They produce highly stylized photographs, building their own sets and costumes as well as retouching the photographs. Their work often features images from popular culture, gay culture including porn (especially James Bidgood), and religion.

Pierre Commoy, the photographer, was born in 1949 in La Roche-sur-Yon. Gilles Blanchard, the painter, was born in 1953 in Le Havre. After art studies, they moved to Paris in 1973 where they met in 1976, and began to work together.

One of Pierre’s first professional works was taking photos for Sylvie Vartan for music magazines features, who became his muse.

People photographed by Pierre et Gilles include: musicians Amanda Lear (the cover of her 1980 album Diamonds for Breakfast, one of their first assignments), Lio, Khaled, Étienne Daho, Marie France, Mikado, Marc Almond, Marilyn Manson, Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Erasure, Deee-Lite, The Creatures, Nina Hagen and CocoRosie (the cover of their 2007 album The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn); model Naomi Campbell, actress Catherine Deneuve, actor Layke Anderson and also designers Jean-Paul Gaultier and Paloma Picasso.

What artists would better suit the Axel Hotel fantasy world as Pierre & Gilles? The French artists are indeed famous for their iconic portraits of sailors, princes, saints and sinners, mythological figures, actor’s portraits… and lots of flesh!

The retrospective is held at “CO Berlin” (The International Forum for Visual Arts) from 25 July – 4 October (daily from 11am-8pm).
More information: http://www.co-berlin.info/co-neu/web/Vorschau/start_en.php

The “Pierre & Gilles Retrospective” Package includes:

* 1 VIP Ticket per person for the Exhibition
* One Softcover Book from Pierre & Gilles Retrospective
* 1 Prosecco bottle in the room

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